Every year from Christmas to Epiphany we go on a trip.  Sometimes we do actually leave Vermont, but that is not the kind of trip I’m talking about.  Through every one of the “twelve days of Christmas” or the “holy nights” we carry a meditation with us through time.  We go backward and forward, busting through the 4^th dimension and using like it was meant to.  We roll around with our toddler years, smile at our adolescence, marvel at our super twenties and appreciate the hard work of our thirties.  And now we get to pick through our forties like sociologists exploring a new culture or detectives marking the scene of the crime.

The goal is to suspend judgment and just see it.  See the magnificent and shameful without praise or cursing.  To be like a stone – unmoved either way – just watching it pass.

This brings great clarity and peace (when I can do it – it can be rather tricky to accept and see objectively several choice moments in my life).

And then we project.

We see the future.

And this year, the future is, in a word, play.  We are going to know, feel, experience and relish play like never before.

Now we should be clear about what “play” is.  This does not mean we aren’t going to work or be responsible or attend to matters of consequence.  Play is not the opposite of work.  Play is what you do when you engage in a game.  That is when you play.  You play games.

So in seeing our future for 2012, the real shift is to see our life as a series of games to play.  We are going to play the “make the website more efficient” game right along side the “run through the snow in bare feet” game.

We are going to play “Pay your taxes” and then play “Put bacon in the pumpkin pie”

There are so many games to play.  I enjoy the “make snow angel” game.  My intention is to make the “Pay for the Volvo’s new starter” game more fun.

So welcome to the game called “2012”.  Will you come out and play?